Description

Winner of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship, and a New York Times bestseller, The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published. Sandor Katz presents the concepts and processes behind fermentation in ways that are simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners. While Katz expertly contextualizes fermentation in terms of biological and cultural evolution, health and nutrition, and even economics, this is primarily a compendium of practical information how the processes work; parameters for safety; techniques for effective preservation; troubleshooting; and more. With two-color illustrations and extended resources, this book provides essential wisdom for cooks, homesteaders, farmers, gleaners, foragers, and food lovers of any kind who want to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for arguably the oldest form of food preservation, and part of the roots of culture itself. Readers will find detailed information on fermenting vegetables; sugars into alcohol (meads, wines, and ciders); sour tonic beverages; milk; grains and starchy tubers; beers (and other grain-based alcoholic beverages); beans; seeds; nuts; fish; meat; and eggs, as well as growing mold cultures, using fermentation in agriculture, art, and energy production, and considerations for commercial enterprises. Sandor Katz has introduced what will undoubtedly remain a classic in food literature, and is the first and only of its kind."show more

Review quote

Library Journal- This is not a line-by-line recipe cookbook, but it contains detailed instructions on fermenting (or creating via fermentation) nearly every imaginable food or beverage. After a foreword by Michael Pollan, Katz ("Wild Fermentation") explores the scientific basis of fermentation, then gives details for creating everything from yogurts to prosciutto to wines, beer, and kombucha. He emphasizes how fermentation influenced human development. Used to preserve food, it affected human biology so that humans could eat foods that would be poisonous otherwise, and it had an impact on global human culture as a reflection of indigenous cultural identity. Simply put, fermentation allows lactic acid bacteria naturally found in the air to overcome and exclude bacteria that are harmful to humans, and it increases advantageous chemical compounds, such as vitamins, in the process. There is a generous photo section of tools, containers, and processes; along with fascinating electron microscope photos of bacteria, which convey a sense of wonder at the unseen world of fermentation. VERDICT: Katz takes fermentation down to the molecular level while keeping it conversational and accessible to the generalist. Fermentation foodies will be ecstatic.show more

About Sandor Ellix Katz

Sandor Ellix Katz, a self-taught fermentation experimentalist, wrote Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods in order to spread the fermentation wisdom he had learned, and demystify home fermentation. Newsweek called it "the fermenting bible". Since the publication of Wild Fermentation, Katz has taught hundreds of fermentation workshops across North America and internationally, taking on a role he describes as a "fermentation revivalist".show more